Co-Teaching the Term "Co-Teaching" Is

Co-Teaching The term "co-teaching" is defined as the use of more than one certified teachers to a class of students, with both educators providing instruction in some form. Co-teaching offers a number of benefits including the opportunity for more individualized attention and intervention for students. This is particularly important with second-language difficulties, special educational needs or for student who may be having a problem with a particular topic.

Co-teaching also enhances the structure and management of the classroom, since a teacher does not have to delay the progress of the whole class due to needs of a few others who require special help. As educational budgets become more difficult to pass for construction and new teachers, co-teaching allows teachers to instruct larger classes and still offer high-quality education. The concept of co-teaching also provides new teachers a mentoring and support system and tenure teachers a means of acquiring fresh ideas and sharing of best practices.

Other benefits of co-teaching include greater collegial exchanges of strategies between professionals, increased understanding of all students' needs, stronger instructional programs grounded in general education content for students with disabilities, increased acceptance of students with disabilities by their peers, and decreased burnout for professionals. Within the research literature on co-teaching, several common themes emerge that are critical for this model to be successfully implemented.

These themes focus on a need for communication between co-teachers, administrative support, similar philosophies, and planning time There are several different approaches of co-teaching, and some are more appropriate than others depending on the situation. Also, teachers and school administrators need to carefully determine when co-teaching is and is not beneficial. There are instances when an approach may present disadvantages. Acceptance of co-teaching should not be made arbitrarily just because it is in fashion or someone believes that it will remedy a difficult circumstance.

In the One Teach, One Support cooperative model of teaching, one teacher leads instruction while the other teacher simultaneously offers extra assistance to individuals who may have specific needs that keep them from automatically benefiting from or keeping up with instruction.

Although both teachers are involved in the planning process for this model of teaching, one teacher is more likely to focus on content instruction while the other works to adapt or augment the lesson with supplemental supports in response to the learning and behavioral needs of individual students in the classroom. The room's layout is normally kept similar as with a traditional class, sometimes with certain students grouped together who need additional help.

One teacher usually instructs the entire group while the support teacher floats, providing supplemental materials and facilitating the learning of those with unique needs. This teacher also hands out materials when necessary, makes sure that the students are in the right places in their books to follow along, understand the material that is being presented and have the necessary paperwork in their folders.

This would work well for students designing a budget, where the majority of students had mastered basic fact skills, but others may need support to ensure they are computing addition and subtraction correctly. Since formal instruction is generally only one part of any lesson, during exploration or practice this model provides two teachers to assist or facilitate students in hands-on activities or guided practice. This approach offers a number of different benefits.

For example, the support teacher can automatically see if a student is following along or seems to have difficulty keeping up. It is better to catch such problems at this earlier time, rather than the next day when the homework comes in or several days later when the test is given. As the teacher circulates, he/she also keeps the students on task rather than daydreaming or talking with one another. This is an efficient approach, since no time is lost handing out papers or assisting a student.

It is important to note that this second teacher is just as important as the one leading the class, since he/she offers individual support and tutoring. Although the two teachers are on equal footing, a drawback of this approach is that the students often see a hierarchy between the educator at the front of the class and the one circulating. In addition, the compatibility of teachers is important, as teachers must be comfortable fulfilling lead and supplemental roles, which can potentially result in a power struggle.

Station Teaching breaks the classroom into more manageable groups following specific characteristics. Students may be grouped heterogeneously or homogeneously by skill level, or learning style, or special needs, etc. Classroom stations will be set up at various locations throughout the room and be designed to cater to different, small groups. Students will spend time at one station before rotating to another. Typically teachers using this model will develop their own content for the specific stations they are responsible for facilitating. This model naturally provides small working groups and differentiated instruction.

It can be beneficial in teaching to the specific needs of students, such as a group of ELLs or students who require kinesthetic learning. In working with multiplication, teachers could set up different stations that used arrays and manipulative and a math fact song in both English and Spanish so that students could learn the concept through different modalities and reinforce the language needs of ELLs.

It is important however that station teaching rely upon the same groupings day in and day out, since this would negate the true intentions of inclusion, and limit the ability of students to learn from the diverse perspectives in the classroom. Station teaching requires more pre-planning and logistics.